Venus's curse
- noun
- /ˈviːnəsɪz kɜrs/
- NSFW
:
la maldición de Venus
- Medical texts from the past often referred to syphilis as Venus's curse.
Examples
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Many people feared Venus's curse during the outbreak of syphilis.
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In eighteenth-century Europe, Venus's curse was a feared and little-understood disease.
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Many believed that Venus's curse was a divine punishment for immoral behavior.
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Don't you think Venus's curse is an outdated term?
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In eighteenth-century Europe, Venus's curse referred to the feared disease known as syphilis.
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Medical texts from the past often referred to syphilis as Venus's curse, highlighting its stigma.
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Many believed that Venus's curse represented a moral failing and was punishment for promiscuity.
Synonyms
49
3.7
An infection you get through sexual contact
45
4.8
An infection you can catch by sex, caused by bacteria, that can harm you and your baby if not treated
29
2.7
An illness you can get from someone when you have sex
7
3.7
A disease spread by sexual contact
6
7.4
A contagious infection spread by sexual contact
1
4.6
An illness that spreads through sexual contact, like syphilis or gonorrhea
1
5.8
A disease people get through sex
An old name for syphilis, a disease you get by sex
An old name for syphilis, an infection spread by sex
A serious disease spread by sex that causes long-term health problems
A sexually transmitted infection caused by bacteria that can damage many body parts and pass from mother to baby
An infection you catch from another person during sex
Surface Forms
Morphology
Venus's + curse
The possessive 'Venus's' evokes the goddess of love (and by extension sex) while 'curse' signals a harmful affliction, so a learner who knows both words might guess the phrase refers to a sexual-related problem. However, the specific historical sense 'sexually transmitted infection (syphilis)' depends on cultural/historical knowledge of the term 'venereal' and is not directly predictable from the parts, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Venus's curse links the goddess of love, Venus, with the word curse. People once called some illnesses that came from sex a punishment from love, so the phrase came to mean 'a sexually transmitted infection', especially 'syphilis'.